Although Labor Day is revered as the unofficial end to summer, here at Notre Dame, it feels like summer ended a long time ago.
Buried under the weight of homework, some of us are just bitter that we don’t get the day off like the rest of the country. But Labor Day is a national holiday not created for one last trip to the beach, but in honor of the American workforce.
We seriously take for granted how worse off we would be if Americans were lazier. More than 156 million people make up the American workforce, more than half the population. Even more worth noting is that women make up 47% of that workforce.
Parents especially deserve an extra day off to say goodbye to summer. Over 60% of children are living in a household where all parents present work full time.
Labor day was created in the 19th century by the labor movement, when unions and workers’ rights were a hot topic. The Industrial Revolution grew our economy at an alarming rate, and the workforce did all the heavy lifting. Workplaces were unsafe, children as young as five were working in factories, and even the average male had to work 84 hour weeks just to get by.
Things became testy when workers started unions in order to protest these poor working conditions. Some strikes became violent, and workers and policemen alike were killed in the riots. In order to mend relations with the American workforce, Congress declared Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894.
Although an unhappy history, Labor Day remains today to be a “thank you” to all the hard-working Americans who make our country the largest economy in the world. So even though we will all be in school, think of all the hard work put in by everyone on campus and say thank you.
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